The Partridge & The Pears
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day fifty-two: 12 Days of Gleekmas, day 1: Artie contemplates the issue of standing apart from the group when the bus issue comes up.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle. Now entering the seventh through ninth weeks, here comes cycle 3 of my gleekathon!_

_I wanted to do something Christmas-y, but not overly so, but then the song was perfect for this. So the stories in and of themselves aren't Christmas-themed, just the thing that inspired them is ;) You'll see :)_

_So presenting... **The 12 Days of Gleekmas - Day 1:** Artie + "A partridge in a pear tree"_

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**"The Partridge & The Pears"  
Artie**

He'd now spent half of his lifetime in his wheelchair. It had become a part of who he was… But then there were the memories. He remembered running, he remembered playing soccer, baseball. It was so far in the past now, but it was still a part of himself that he wasn't about to brush away, lock away.

The times he seemed to remember it most were the times when others would have to out of their way to help him. One such moment was the problem of transport to Sectionals.

They probably didn't remember when they knew each other, in first grade, before the accident. He knew from pictures that some had been in his class. It was easy for them to forget, but he had more to hang on to than what color his backpack was or what he did for show and tell.

He wished he'd known Tina at that time, known what she was like when she was that age. It was a curiosity, one he'd developed from spending time with her.

There'd been that conflict in his mind, about the bus issue. He wanted to ride to Sectionals with everybody else. He wanted to be among them and experience everything that Mr. Schuester had told them about, from his own time in Glee. All of them were so pumped up for this, so ready. He knew the energy on that bus would make it a memory he'd want to have.

But then he also knew how much trouble it was shaping up to be, to get the bus so he could come along. All this money they'd have to get, just for this memory… As much as he wanted it, sometimes he wasn't sure it was worth all this.

His mother would say he was like his father. He didn't want to bother people, didn't want to impose. Since the accident, the two of them had grown that much closer. It was like survivor's guilt, only he was still alive… He didn't like that she felt that way. She'd gotten out of that accident with no more than a few scratches, and no matter how many years had passed, he could see she was trying to make up to him the fact that she was okay and he wasn't. He'd yet to convince her that he was in fact okay.

So he'd gone to his father. If they were so like-minded, then maybe he'd know how to explain away this conflict in his mind.

He followed the path out to the side door into the basement. His father was down there so often, he'd made sure Artie could get to him if he wanted to. He was good with his tools, and he'd put those skills to good use. When Artie arrived there, his father was watching television, though he'd been working before.

"What are you watching?" Artie asked as he approached. His father shrugged.

"Golf." He looked to his son for a moment, and he turned off the small television set. "Something wrong?" he asked, seeing that he was playing around with one of his tools.

"No, I…" he started, still turning the object in his hand. "Sectionals are coming up…"

"Yes, we'll be there," he nodded. Artie smiled a moment, looking at him. The smile lowered after a moment.

"The school doesn't have the money to get the bus. But Mr. Schuester's trying to work it out."

"That's good," he nodded.

"It is, it's just…" he put the tool back on the work table. "All this… I'd be fine driving with you, but I want to go with them. I just don't want them to have to do all this," he shrugged. His dad's nod was recognizable as 'I know what you mean.'

"But you really want this, don't you?" Artie looked at him, no need to think too much of it through before he nodded. "Then let them do it," he nodded back. "I think in this case the wanting behind it wins over the rest."

So that was what he'd done. In the end, so much good had come out of it. First, the money was going to go towards more ramps. If he could help the other wheelchair students at McKinley, then it could be okay to give up the famed bus ride.

But then Mr. Schuester had come back to him with a confused smile and announced that they would use the money for the bus after all. When he found out about Coach Sylvester's donation, he'd had more or less the same reaction as Will. He'd had to be assured two or three times that it was indeed Sue Sylvester they were talking about.

Once that shock was over though, he remembered the important part – he was going to get the bus ride. He'd asked Mr. Schuester about his own Glee rides, and the stories he got made him excited all over again.

He wasn't going to think about 'the next time' or 'the one after that.' On the one hand, it could be that however they did at Sectionals would change the fate of their next rides. And on the other hand, even if it didn't… it wasn't about this now. For the moment, it was all about Sectionals.

THE END


End file.
